Strength in Numbers
by phenomenalxlaura
Summary: "In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living." With the recent impending apocalypse, you struggle to keep yourself sane and safe. There's strength in numbers, but when those numbers start to decrease and trust barriers begin to break, the odds are stacked against you. - Eventually will become a Daryl/OC. R&R.


"**In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living."**

It's been 6 months since the world went to Hell…six months has felt like an eternity. Every corner turned, everyone hopes to find some form of sanity and safety. Every time there's a glimmer of hope, it's shattered right before your very eyes. Wherever you went, you we're never safe. You always had to keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. You could never trust people, hell, sometimes you found yourself questioning your own damn family! With the recent impending apocalypse, you struggle to keep yourself sane and safe. There's strength in numbers, but when those numbers start to decrease and trust barriers begin to break, the odds are stacked against you.

Traveling on foot was the worst, but there wasn't any other choice at that point. Allie and Daniel, brother and sister, had run out of gas. They had no other choice. According to the map, they had reached Interstate 85. "SHIT! We're out of gas!" Daniel yelled with anger.

Daniel pulled up to a abandoned van, the wheels screeched along the pavement as he came to complete stop, then turned off the engine, "We'll need to get some gas." He reached to the backseat where a tube was, which is what they primarily used to retrieve gas from cars.

"No, shit." Allie's eyebrows furrowed, looking ahead through the window. Her jaw dropped; she was stunned. "Oh my God…"

"What, what is it?" Daniel asked.

"There's a huge group of walkers ahead of us." Allie immediately got goose bumps, she was trembling. Her lips quivered. Daniel threw the canister and tube back in the backseat.

"Get out of the car. Do it now!" Allie was confused, but since her brother's gotten them both this far, she took his word and did what he said. Daniel flew his door open, then Allie followed. They didn't even bother shutting the doors. They ran past the cars. "Come on, keep up!" Daniel demanded frantically, his shotgun in his hand. He was breathing heavily, passing by empty, eroding cars.

His younger sister, Allie, was inches behind him, but being the overly protective big brother, that wasn't good enough. Biting her tongue from lashing out, Allie tried to calm his nerves and shouted loud enough that he could hear, "I'm trying!" A large herd of walkers we're behind them. Thankfully they were far enough ahead of them that they didn't pinpoint exactly where the two of them were. Daniel stopped and hid behind a tipped over pick up, "Shit, what are we going to do, Daniel?"

"I don't' know. I don't…know. They're not running at least…" He tilted his head back, resting against the pick up. He sucked in a breath, then looked around to see if there was any possible place that they could hide. He frantically turned to his sister, his forehead dripping with pellets of sweat, "W-we're gonna have to get under the cars, do it now!"

"But they're gonna-" Allie was worried. She didn't trust the idea at all.

"Shut up and do it. Now!" Daniel darted to the nearest car, grabbing Allie's hand in the process. They slid under an SUV and laid there as still as possible. Daniel lightly wrapped his arm around Allie for comfort.

Whilst laying on the blacktop next to her brother, Allie covered her own mouth, shaking. Faint tears were rolling down her cheeks. The sounds of growls and walkers feet scooted across the scorching pavement. You'd think that being stuck under some form of shade the heat would at least give up, but it didn't. Trying not to move, Allie turned to face her brother. He was equally just as scared, but tried to not show it. He gave her a stern nod as the walkers continued to pass them, thankfully from what they saw, not picking up their scents. Must've been low enough or something.

In what seemed like an eternity, the herd of walkers finally passed through. Daniel rolled out from under the car and gave Allie the okay to get out of the car. "Damn, that was a close one!" Daniel exclaimed, his lips curving into a satisfied, happy kind of smile.

"Yeah, too close! We can't…we can't keep doing stuff like this, Daniel. We can't keep doing this alone, just the two of us. What we need is a group."

"Highly doubt we'll find any out here."

"You said the same thing about not finding any walkers in Atlanta, too, Dan…" Allie argued, throwing her own weight into the issue. "When we got to Atlanta, we ran into a huge group of them! Hell, that group that just passed by us was apart of them, too! I'm grabbing my stuff and I'm going to search for a group. Either you can join me, or we'll split up. Pick your poison, darling." She kept her hand on her pistol, just in case a straggler happened to pop up out of the cars.

Daniel rolled his eyes, but eventually met up with his sister. "Look, I know I've said a lot of things - and a lot of those things have been bullshitting you, but I'm trying to keep us alive."

"I know it's with good intention, but just because you're the older one doesn't mean you're any wiser than me. Let's go with my gut this time, okay? Let's look for some sort of group. I'm sure we're not the only two survivors here. There's gotta be more _somewhere_."

Daniel took a moment, but finally responded with a nod, "Fine." Reaching their car, Daniel was on the lookout as Allie grabbed some items. Essentials, mostly. Two bags for the each of them: food, ammo, and some clothing. There was still more stuff in their car, but the least amount of stuff they had weighing them down the better. "I think we should stop wasting our gun ammo, too. Maybe we can look through some of these cars and find some form of weaponry that doesn't cause much noise." Daniel added, looking at his sister.

Silence eventually ensued. The only noise Daniel and Allie heard were the trees' branches getting rustled from the wind. Almost too much to bare, Allie turned her head and out of curiosity asked her brother a rather deep question, "So, you were the…the last one to speak to ma." She sucked in a breath, refraining from crying, "W-what was the last thing she said?"

Daniel looked down onto the blacktop, then turning his attention back to some of the cars. He rested his back against a car. Allie stopped, too, then turned her attention to Daniel. "Her last wish…was to keep you and I safe. Under these circumstances, I'm surprised we've made it this far."

"Maybe she's looking over us right now. Maybe that's why we've made it this far." Allie smiled faintly at the thought. "I'm just glad she passed away 2 years ago. I'm glad - as sick as this is gonna sound - that she isn't around right now. I know that's a harsh statement, but…oh, you know what I mean." Allie wiped the tears out of her eyes. Daniel rarely showed emotion anymore, but thinking of ma definitely tugged at his heart strings.

"Okay, no more crying." Daniel laughed, turning around, "Let's look through some of these cars now." He was uncomfortable and had to change the subject. The passenger side door was open, along with the trunk. Daniel opted to look through the passenger side door, while Allie looked through the trunk.

"Jackpot!" Allie came across a large box of canned food, crackers, peanut butter, and bread. "There's even corned beef hash in here."

Daniel's head perked up and a smile graced his lips. "Sweet, now let's keep looking. We'll put everything in our car and hopefully find some gas in one of these things." He turned around, going towards another vehicle. "Stay within my sight, Allie." He turned to her for a moment, "Just in case."

Allie nodded, then continued to rummage through the next vehicle. In that one, she found some blankets, a small box of food, and bottled water galore. There must've been at least 25 bottles of water. "Daniel!" She exclaimed with excitement, "I found water!" Allie set her bags down with their other items and picked up two bottles of water, tossing one at Daniel. "Probably warm, but it's better than nothing." Daniel and Allie unscrewed the cap and took a large drink. It'd been a long while since they had water, so they were immensely thirsty.

Daniel, while scrounging the vehicles for some items, came upon some toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, and canned foods. "Found some stuff here." He began stuffing his bag with some of the items, then putting the rest in a box he found in the vehicle that was already packed up with items.

"Let's take these other items to our car so we can pack as much stuff as possible, okay?" Daniel nodded, picking up his items. Allie grabbed her bags and boxes, then headed back towards their car. In the distance the sound of a vehicle could be heard. "You hear that?" She questioned, stopping in her tracks just inches away from their car.

Daniel lifted his head, "Yeah, I do." The sounds of a rather large vehicle, presuming a motorbike, could be heard as well. "Sounds like there's more than one vehicle. Let's check it out after we get our stuff in our car." The duo reached their car, placing their newly found items into the backseat.

"Lets be careful though. I know I said I wanted to hopefully find some survivors, but we don't know them…therefore, we can't trust them…right away, anyway." Allie and Daniel began heading in the direction that the vehicles were coming from. "I really hope the noises of their vehicles didn't bring the herd of walkers back here." Finally reaching the source of the noise, a group of survivors stood. An older gentleman in a fisherman's hat and floral shirt picked up his binoculars taking in the view of them. They weren't too far away, but it was the only way the older gentleman would get a good view. He must've mentioned something about the two of them cause as they inched closer, a bunch of others surrounded them. Nervously, not aware as to what type of group they were approaching, Allie bit down on her lower lip, keeping close to Daniel. "We don't know these guys. Let's…be careful, Dan."

"You two scratched? Bit?" Asked a man in a cops uniform, holding up a gun just in case.

Not the type of way Allie was expecting, but the world was completely overturned. You couldn't trust people in the slightest anymore. At times, Allie didn't trust Daniel…as sad as that was. "N-no." Allie stammered, closing in closer to the group. "We're just two survivors, like you two. You see the huge herd that passed through here this way?"

"Yes, we did." The man answered, putting his gun down back into it's holster on his belt.

"Apart of a formal introduction…I'm Daniel and this is my sister, Allie." Daniel broke the introduction barrier hoping to have the group more comfortable around them.

"I'm Rick. Rick Grimes. And that's Dale, Andrea, Shane, Carol and her daughter Sophia, my son Carl and my wife Lori, T-Dog, and then there's Daryl."

Allie gazed upon the group, immediately focusing on T-Dog. "Oh my god, his shirt's covered in blood. Are you…you alright?" She asked, concerned.

"I cut it on a car door." He added, gritting his teeth in pain.

Daniel then added, reassuring the group, "My sister…she was studying to become a doctor. Been In the field…what…2 years? Think you can help him?" He asked, turning to his sister.

"Well…if we can find some supplies, I can stitch it up for you as best I can. But I think what you need the most is medication. You don't want a blood infection."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before we make any decisions, we don't know these people." Shane added, hesitant.

"Shut up, Shane." T-Dog asked. "If she can help, let her. It's not like they can hurt us anymore than the walkers could anyway." Shane rolled his eyes in disgust.

Right then and there, Allie knew Shane was trouble. But she kept the thought to herself.

"If you need medication, why didn't ya ask me? I have my brothers stash." Daryl added, heading over to his cycle. Part of the group huddled around, including Allie and Daniel. Daryl placed his crossbow on the nearest car to his motorcycle, then approached his cycle. "Keep your oily rags off my brothers 'cycle." He threw a red rag over towards Dale. Oh, so it's his brothers, Allie thought. Daryl pulled out a baggie filled with various bottles of medication; painkillers and all.

"Okay, so medication's covered. Now I just need a needle and, well, some thread at least…" Allie placed her hands on her hips, "I'd recommend taking some codeine. It's a strong painkiller, T-Dog. You probably won't feel much when I'm stitching you up."

Daniel spoke up at that moment, "Well, I know that we packed a first aid kit, Allie." He turned around, heading in the opposite direction of the group. Basically re-tracing his steps treading back to the car.

"You sure there's stuff in there that we can actually use for this sort of cut? Most I can think of is a gauze pad, tape, and peroxide to clean the wound…unless we come across some vodka. That'd work, too, but damn would it burn." Allie grabbed T-Dog's wounded arm and gently peeled the cloth back. She knew that, seeing how deep and infected the cut actually was, every movement was causing excruciating pain.

"Trust me, it wouldn't hurt as bad as this cut itself." T-Dog concurred. He gritted his teeth, wincing in pain, "Ow, shit."

"Sorry, I'm trying to be as gentle as possible." Allie finally found the source of the cut. "Pretty deep and," Allie placed her hand on his forehead, "you're running a fever. We need to clean this out as soon as possible."

"Before I go digging into this cut though, mind telling me where ya'll are headed?" Allie asked, lifting her head up and eying a few of the members of the group.

"Ft. Benning is our best bet. You?" Rick answered, then followed with his own question.

Allie sighed, "Just treading along, I guess. Daniel and I were originally from Virginia, but when the world went to Hell, we eventually got here to Georgia. We've had some close calls…not just from the walkers, but from other survivors, too. I don't know how we've gotten this far, but we have…gotta thank my brother for that." Daryl rolled his eyes, annoyed. He pulled out his kinfe and began to sharpen his arrows. You'd think they were sharp enough, but…from the looks of it, that's how Daryl was. Quiet and her kept his head low.

"Here's the first aid kit." Daniel headed up towards Allie, handing her the box.

Allie grabbed the box and set it down beside her. Opening the kit, Allie found some gauze pads, a few bandages, medical tape, germ-killing ointment, and peroxide. "Ah, here we go." She pulled out the bottle of peroxide, "This is gonna burn…" Allie poured a few cap full's over T-Dog's wound.

Once more, T-Dog gritted his teeth at the pain. "Errr, God damn." Allie grabbed a gauze pad, gently patting the wound. Eventually, Allie grabbed another one and pressed it against the wound, then took some medical tape and taped it along his arm.

"We'll have to stitch it up later, mind as well let the peroxide clean it out and get the medicine in your system before we do much more…get that fever down." Allie added, before turning her attention to the group, "I don't mean to rush, but uh…we can certainly help you guys out. If you'd give my brother and I a chance, we could really be of a benefit to your group."

Daniel nodded, "Yeah, I mean, hey. After all as the saying goes, there is strength in numbers."

"We have food, weapons, and, from the example I just showed you guys, we have medicine. And my brother, well, for what it's worth, he's good with mechanics." Allie reassured the group. She continued to add, "We're not here to take advantage of anyone either. We've had that happen to us far too many times and we know exactly how much that shit hurts." Shane kept his head hung, staring blankly at the ground. He was skeptical of the duo.

"Yeah, I mean, we're just trying to survive. Just like you people. Too many people have died in this shit, we don't need that causality counter up any higher than it already is…" Daniel spoke up, adding his side to Allie's pleading.

"Can you clean?" Carol asked in a low tone.

"That's like asking if the sky's blue." Allie placed her hands on her hips. "Of course I can."

"We'll put some thought into this. For now, let's get some gas in the RV and the extra containers we have." Rick said, speaking to his group. "And get some supplies out of these cars."

"Come on, Allie, let's go get our car." Daniel began to turn around to head back to their car. Allie nodded and followed. Once reaching an area far enough away from Rick's group, Daniel began to speak, "Group seems nice. But we can't let our guard down yet. You know what's happens when we let our guard down, right?" Allie nodded again, silent.

"We've seen enough sadness and sorry, and quite frankly, life's too short for so much sorrow, Daniel. Seeing this many survivors has honestly gave me hope in this shit filled world." They reached the car, Allie immediately resorted to the back door and grabbed the hose, handing it to Daniel. "Pretty sure that semi truck as gas in it." Allie the grabbed a canister and handed that to Daniel too.

Daniel agreed here and there, "Just remember though…we can't let our guard down. Not yet. Hell, not ever…that's how people die."

Allie rolled her eyes, annoyed with her brothers negative attitude. She placed her hands on her hips, cocked her head to the side, and her eyebrows furrowed, "Will you stop being so damn negative all the time?"

"I'm just saying…pointing out the obvious." He began to retrieve fuel from the semi-truck.

"And I'm just saying to stop being so damn negative. You're a spitting image of dad, I swear." Daniel laughed, but didn't even say anything more. Allie headed to their trunk, "Surprised no stragglers have passed by. Must be intimidated by all the survivors." Allie laughed, grabbing her bags again, placing all the newly found items into the boxes, organizing each of them, too. One had food and beverages, the other had clothes, the third one held medical supplies, the fourth had their few pieces of clothing, and the last and final one had their weapons and minimal supply of ammo.

"Right. Uh-huh." Daniel stood up to a vertical stance, stepping over to their car, "Don't jinx us on that." Daniel added fuel to the car, then directed his sister on what they should do next. "Let's drive up to the group. See if they've thought things through at least." Allie nodded and went over to the passenger side as her brother placed the key into the ignition, starting the car.

Heading up in the direction of the group, Daniel made his way, weaving in between the sea of eroding cars. He parked as close to Rick's group as he could, maybe 5 cars away from the RV. Cars we're over turned and scattered across the interstate at that point, but they'll manage. Exiting the car, Daniel and Allie headed up towards the group, "Anything we can help you with?" Allie asked. The two didn't' want to blatantly ask if they were allowed to join Rick's group. Allie felt that wasn't right, but hey, who's to say? Everyone's morals were twisted.

"Sure. Daniel, you're good with mechanics, right?" Daniel nodded, "Good. Come help Dale. His RV's radiator is acting up. Allie, help Lori, Carol, and Andrea with collecting items from these vehicles. Preferably as much as you can." Rick said in a stern tone.

Reaching Carol, Andrea, and Lori, Allie introduced herself, "Nice to meet all of you." Her lips curved into a grin. Allie immediately got to work, collecting various items from the slew of cars.

For once Daniel and Allie felt safe, _even _if just for a little while.

**This story starts off kind of slow, but I have a strong feeling it'll flow through season 2 rather nicely. And yes, this'll eventually be a Daryl/OC story. I want to take my time with it though and work with the resources that the TV show's given us. Daryl lacks emotion from what I've seen and lashes out when people show that they actually care, so I'm going to try and make this as realistic as possible. Obviously I'm not going to have Sophia disappearing right now, I have some ideas for chapters later on. =)**

**Please leave your thoughts, good or bad. Read and review! ****J**


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